Try squirting penetrating oil in different places of the recoil housing and recoil to see if that free it up.
Mike

Thanks! I soaked it good with PB Blaster Penetrating/Lub before I took it down (knowing I would find something binding, broken or need adjusting. I d/n see a single cause to make it not work consistently. The work to get to the coil spring and re-wind it was the killer. loger

I worked on an old homelite chainsaw w/ the same symptoms and finally wound up having to shim the recoil housing out w/ small flat washers between it and the flywheel housing. Worked great after that.
Mike

Bingo! Bingo! I Solved The Blower's Problems In My Sleep. In about an hour I Had The Monster Ready For Some Leaves Next Week. A Manual Would Have Been Nice. Putting the blower back together made me realize the blower housing d/n have to come apart but off. Such as: Removing the blower (1 nut) and 4 screws to rem the engine and recoil from the bottom blower housing, 5 screws to get to the recoil on bottom of engine off. I felt I would have to see something different since there is no attempt of recoiling after hearing something slip (as the spring). I felt I saw no way the spring could slip, due to a good lock at the O/S dia and auto catch I/S dia. I made a correction on the coil spring's cover (up vs down) that I c/n see how it mattered but I guess it did because it works fine now.

The Bottom Line, It's Good To Have A Manual, Plus Old Experiences!! Again, "Some Jobs Are Not Worth The Time vs Personal". I can remember shops saying the work is not worth our time, "But This Is What You Can Do To Fix It". loger